Our Nation Suffers from C-PTSD

When Donald Trump was elected, there was a palpable, seismic shift in our shared reality. I think it has resulted in emotional trauma.

We’ve never had a president like this one. In the past, we were able to accept the outcomes of our elections, but this one is different. It’s not just that this man is so unqualified and detached from reality, either.

He has a way of sucking the oxygen right out of us. We can’t seem to escape him. He’s everywhere. His presence is felt from a distance. We can’t seem to get a moment of peace anywhere.

For the first time in my life, I experience actual fear and anxiety simply because of who is leading our country. It’s genuinely surreal.

He’s so corrupt, and causing so much chaos, that we can’t seem to find a moment for ourselves. There’s little space for anything else. I’ve heard this from many others, too. It seems like quite a lot of us are having trouble coping right now. And those are valid feelings.

Some of us are depressed. Some of us are anxious. Some of us are both. Some of us can’t sleep. Some of us can’t even seem to function. This is what I’m learning from others. And I have experienced many of these things to varying degree myself.

None of us are immune.

This phenomenon that we are experiencing is new for many of us. It caught us off guard. And we’ve felt powerless over this situation. And this has led me to believe that it’s possible many of us are suffering from C-PTSD: Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

How messed up is that? The man in the White House has literally made us ill. The election campaign was a yearlong battle of assaults. His “win” was a genuine shock to our nervous systems. And we continue to be bombarded by this emotional trauma on a daily basis.

I’m not a psychologist, but the symptoms and risk factors are all present in our lives. I think there’s good evidence to support this hypothesis. And I suspect the condition is being aggravated due to continued daily trauma.

By acknowledging this, I think it gives us an opportunity to better recognize what we’re experiencing, and that’s an important step. By knowing what the problem is, we have slightly better control over it. It will allow us to begin the journey toward self-healing. It also gives us an opportunity to heal as a community.

Together, we can help support one another as we work through these feelings.

If you are feeling depressed, or anxious, or both, know that your feelings are valid, and shared by many others. You’re not alone. You’re not crazy. In fact, I believe this emotional abuse is deliberate: they are wearing down our defenses.

This is truly the sickest bunch of politicians we have ever faced in our country. They’re actually targeting us for psychological abuse.

#Note: There were a culmination of factors that led me to this realization. The article I mentioned was shared with me by @Aus_RichAlex. That’s what helped me to make the connection between the pain people have shared with me and the emotional trauma.